


Hidden past

by Fa113nM00n



Category: Tales of Zestiria, 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Crossover, F/M, Female Shěn Qīngqiū, Hinted Rose/Alisha Diphda, Hinted Sormik, Human Sacrifice, Post-Canon, Sacrifice, Seraph Alisha Diphda, Seraph Liu Qingge, Seraph Rose (Tales of Zestiria), Seraph Shen Qingqiu, Seraph Sorey (Tales of Zestiria)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:14:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27081757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fa113nM00n/pseuds/Fa113nM00n
Summary: Sorey and four of his friends have been travelling around for a bit when they met a very special fire seraph.
Relationships: Liǔ Qīnggē/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Hidden past

**Author's Note:**

> I want to write liushen... it's my second favourite ship in SVSSS XD  
> And because I have ToZ amvs playing in the background, I made another crossover...  
> I was also thinking of uploading this after I have drawn liushen as seraphims... But then I decided to just upload it anyway XD

Sorey came to a sudden halt. He and his friends had sensed a dragon nearby and heard fighting. But they had _not_ expected the scene in front of them. A lone fire seraph against a gigantic black dragon. And by the look of things, the fire seraph was winning.

The fire seraph stood on a sword that took him high up in the air and the dragon followed. Sending fireballs after him. The fireballs easily avoided. The two disappeared up into among the dark clouds and then they saw the clouds glow up in red. Some more roaring and then suddenly an explosion that split the clouds. The dragon crashed into the ground and had soon faded away. The fire seraph landed on the ground and sunk down on one knee. It woke Sorey up and he hurried over.

“Are you alright?” Sorey asked as he got closer.

A pair of silver-grey eyes raised and first gave him a glare, but then softened a bit. The fire seraph stood up and sheathed the sword into the scabbard he had attached to his belt.

“I'm fine. What does a bunch of seraphs do here so deep into the mountains?” the fire seraph asked back.

That's right, Sorey had been awake for a few years now. He had woken up as a lightning seraph that could purify. He still didn't have full control over his powers, but good enough control to leave safety to explore the world. With him were Mikleo, Alisha and Rose. Alisha had been reborn into an earth seraph while Rose had become a wind seraph. Since the world was currently in peace, the four had decided to travel around together. That was how they ended up deep within unexplored mountains and met this powerful fire seraph.

“Oh, we're travelling around to explore ruins!” Sorey explained happily.

“Ruins? Well, I know of one that hasn't been found by others yet.” The fire seraph explained as he dusted off some soot from his white and red clothes.

“Really!” Sorey exclaimed with a beaming smile.

Mikleo suddenly cleared his throat and brought the other back to reality.

“Oh right! We haven't introduced each other yet!” Sorey remembered thanks to Mikleo.

“Well, the mention of ruins always makes you forget stuff.” Rose teased.

“But the thought of a fully unexplored ruin is quite exciting.” Alisha agreed with Sorey.

“Anyway, I'm a water seraph by the name Mikleo.” Mikleo introduced.

“Sorey, lightning seraph”

“My name is Alisha Diphda, I am an earth seraph. A pleasure to meet you.”

“And I'm Rose! A wind seraph!”

“Qingge Liu, a fire seraph.”

Mikleo finally decided to step forward and reach out with a hand. Liu Qingge were at first about to step back. But when the water seraph started to heal him, he stayed still.

“Still, you can't be an ordinary seraph if you could take down a dragon all on your own.” Rose suddenly stated.

“Dragons often come to this area to find a domain. So I have fought them quite a few times by now.” Liu Qingge said like it were nothing new.

“You must be one old seraph...” Alisha mumbled.

“A few thousand maybe” Liu Qingge shrugged.

“That's... old...” Rose agreed.

Mikleo got done with healing and pulled back.

“That ruin you mentioned!” Sorey reminded excitedly.

“This way” Liu Qingge stated and started to walk.

The other four followed.

It took a bit of hiking, but deep within the forest-covered mountain, they found what looked to have been a gate once hidden by greenery. The gate gigantic and the walls even bigger. It didn't look natural, but it was hard to believe it was made by humans.

“How did you find this?” Rose asked while the other three hurried over to the wall and started to examen it.

“Spotted it while I was fighting that dragon. There was a gigantic tree in the way before the dragon uprooted it in our battle.” Liu Qingge explained.

“I wonder how such a high wall was made...” Mikleo mumbled as he looked as closely as he could.

“It looks like an earth seraph helped with raising this wall.” Alisha theorized.

“So this was built in the era of the gods?” Sorey added to the theory.

Rose and Liu Qingge stood a few steps behind and just looked at the three come up with theories about a single wall.

“Are they always like this?” Liu Qingge asked.

“Pretty much, the three of them are huge nerds when it comes to these stuff.” Rose explained with her hands behind her head.

The two then stood silent and watched the other three have their fun. Then finally, they looked to be interested in entering the gate. The gate was made out of gigantic stone blocks. Lucky for them that there was an earth seraph there that could get it to open. The rest took quite a few steps back while Alisha walked up to the gates. She took a deep breath before digging her fingers into the crack separating the two doors. After a bit of gathering power, she pushed the doors apart. It took a lot of strength and she only managed to part the doors far enough for them to get through. She wasn't able to fully open them.

Once the doors were finally parted, Alisha stumbled back a little bit and let out a heavy sigh. The rest walked over to her to see if she were alright. With a smile, the earth seraph assured the rest she was. And so they entered. The sun was on the way down and blinded them as they got through the gate. They had to raise their hands at first, because of the sudden sunlight. But when they lowered their hands, their eyes widened in amazement. Even Rose was impressed. They stood at a wide stone-road that led over to a big pavilion looking building. The building of a style none of them had ever seen before. Smaller pavilions with walls were built around the bigger one in rows. Smaller stone paths led to these smaller buildings from the main path. All of these building had a symbol above the entrance, each symbol different for every building.

“Are these... family emblems?” Sorey mumbled after having gone over to the closest pavilion.

“Everything is in such good condition... it's like time hasn't touched this place.” Mikleo stated as he examined one of the statues lined up along the main road.

The statues looked like angels. Their wings lowered and hand held onto what looked to be a staff. From each staff hung a lantern, that would have been lit during the night in the far past. All of the angels looked to wear plain masks that were decorated with symbols. It was hard to tell what kind of symbols, since they had never seen anything like it before. But it looked like magic circles.

“I wonder what this symbol means.” Alisha said thoughtfully.

She had entered the big open pavilion and right now stood in front of gigantic window carvings. There were five windows, each with a different carving. One had a depiction of the sun, with the symbol for fire. Another had the depiction of mountains, with the symbol for earth. The third had the depiction of rivers, with the symbol for water. The fourth had the depiction of leaves, with the symbol for wind. All four of these window carvings also had the depiction of an angel. Just like the statues, the angels had a plain mask with that unfamiliar symbol. But the angels depicted in the window carving looked to be praying.

The fifth window carving, that were in the middle of the other four, had the symbol of the angels' masks. But a lot bigger and with a lot more detail. This was the window carving Alisha stood in front of. Between her and the window carvings were a big stone table with a gigantic pot placed on top. On each side of the pot stood candle holders. On each side of the table's short ends stood an angel statue holding a staff each. Like the along the path, these staffs had lantern hanging from the top.

The rest entered the pavilion and gathered beside Alisha, looking at the window carvings. But it was getting too dark. Liu Qingge solved that problem with a sweep of his arm. All the lanterns got lit up with fire and the area got filled with a warm red light. Giving them the light they needed to continue to look closer at things.

“Qingge, have you seen this symbol before?” Sorey suddenly decided to ask.

Liu Qingge had been standing in the background with crossed arms and got a bit surprised when Sorey suddenly asked him something. But quickly gathered himself and stepped forward.

“It's the taoist symbol for balance.” Liu Qingge explained.

“Taoist? What's that?” Rose asked in confusion.

“Right, none of you would now what cultivation was.” Liu Qingge sighed.

“Would you mind telling us?” Sorey asked with a smile.

“Hm? Why not? It's not taboo.” Liu Qingge shrugged.

Then he walked around the table and up to the middle window carving.

“This symbol represents the harmony between two opposing forces. One side symbolises the power of life that flows through all living thing and the forces of light that blesses all it shines upon. The other side symbolises death that devours all and the forces of darkness that lives within the shadows light casts.”

Rose sat down against the table with a jawn, not that interested in history. While Sorey, Mikleo and Alisha listened closely with expressions of concentration and thought.

“In the far past, when humans and spirits lived in harmony with each other, they helped each other to keep the balance between the light and dark. These were times before the shepherd you four knows today.”

“A time before the shepherd existed...” Sorey mumbled in wonder.

“Is spirits referring to seraphs?” Mikleo asked.

“Right, that's what spirits are called nowadays.” Liu Qingge agreed.

“The light and dark... Is it like the power of purification and malevolence?” Alisha then asked.

“Yeah, that would be the current name of those forces. In these times, humans didn't need the seraph to purify. They were able to cultivate the force of light and learn how to purify that way, in order to keep the balance.” Liu Qingge continued.

“Humans... that could purify without the oath... That's kinda hard to believe...” Mikleo mumbled thoughtfully.

“If one cultivated for long enough, they could attain immortality by becoming spirits.” Liu Qingge added.

“Huh! Really?!” Sorey exclaimed in surprise.

“Cultivation required hard work and knowledge of the elements. In order to successfully cultivate one needed to find balance within themselves. Spirits were already pure creatures and thus couldn't cultivate in this manner that gave them the power to purify the darkness. All they could do was share their knowledge and lend the humans their powers. In those times, there existed many clans that each had a way of cultivation. The knowledge passed down from generation to generation.”

“To have lived in those times...” Sorey mumbled dreamingly as he gazed upon the window carvings.

“I have a question...” Mikleo suddenly said and gained everyone's attention.

“What is it Mikleo?” Sorey asked.

“This place... is it a cemetery?” Mikleo then asked.

A shiver ran down Rose's spine and she was quickly standing up.

“Then shouldn't we leave? We wouldn't want to disturb those buried here, right?” Rose tried desperately.

“It is a burial ground. But no one is buried here. This place merely holds the entrances to some of the more powerful cultivation clan's burial grounds.” Liu Qingge corrected with crossed arms.

“I...I see...” Rose breathed out.

“But at the end of the age of cultivation, this very pavilion was an altar of sacrifice.” Liu Qingge then added.

Rose turned pale and clung onto Alisha. While Mikleo turned his gaze down.

“Sacrifice... huh?...” Mikleo mumbled.

Violet eyes raised when a hand got placed on his shoulder and met emerald ones. Mikleo answered Sorey's worried smile with a smile of his own. Then they turned their attention back towards Liu Qingge, who was now standing with his back towards the rest of them again.

“Why did they resort to sacrifice?” Sorey asked.

“Because by then... humans could no longer interact with spirits like they did in the past. Now not everyone was able to cultivate, you had to be born with that ability. But it wasn't a guarantee that you would be able to purify the darkness even after having worked hard on cultivation. So cultivators began to become sparse.”

“So the humans resorted to sacrifices...” Mikleo mumbled.

“The humans knew they needed the power of the spirits to fight the darkness. They could no longer do it on their own. But since they could no longer get in contact with the spirits anymore... they tried with cultivating the darkness in order to create spiritual weapons using human souls.” Liu Qingge explained through gritted teeth.

The four younger seraphs gasped at the knowledge of such acts. It was silent for some time, none had words to speak. But only until Alisha finally got herself to ask the question.

“Qingge... are you perhaps... from that era?”

It was silent for some time longer, before Liu Qingge let out a very heavy sigh.

“I'll tell you about how I became a seraph...” Liu Qingge then said.

Calamity was fast approaching, but Liu Qingge couldn't care less about it as he rushed through the forest to stop the ceremony. He entered the burial ground and silver eyes widened.

“QINGQIU!!!”

Liu Qingge's shout made Shen Qingqiu raise her head where she was sitting on her knees in the open pavilion. She was sitting with her hands over her ears and tears streaming down her already deathly pale face. Flames of malevolence surrounded her within a magical circle and more of that dark power were gathering. Around her wrists and ankles was shackles, thick chains connecting them. The female cultivator was about to call out to her fiancee, but screamed towards the sky instead. Malevolence was forcing its way into her body through her back.

Liu Qingge's eyes were burning with fury as he drew his sword and rushed forward to stop the ceremony. But monks dressed in black got in his way and attacked with their staffs. The male cultivator let out a loud scream of fury as he swung his sword to cut down those who stood in his way. But like him, the monks were trained in the art of battle. He was one person against many. So no matter how much he fought, silver eyes could only watch as blood started to leave green ones instead of tears.

In a final plead for help, Shen Qingqiu reached out a trembling hand. Liu Qingge knew he was way too far away from her. But ended up reaching out a hand towards his lover in a desperate attempt to save her. But when she collapsed upon that place, her white and green dress drenched in her blood, her fiance saw red and screamed out in the agony. The grief and agony he felt gave him the power to slaughter the monks in his way.

But as it started to rain, it was all for nothing. Liu Qingge staggered over to his beloved. His white and silver robes were drenched in the blood of others. While the ground was littered with the body of monks. The sound of rain the only thing filling the empty space in his heart as he fell down on his knees beside Shen Qingqiu's still body. He carefully wrapped an arm behind her shoulder and partly lifted her body up. One hand on the back of the older's head.

Then he just sat there. Empty silver eyes gazed upon the pale face of the women who would have been his bride in mere months. Liu Qingge wasn't even able to let out a single sound as he just stared. Tears he didn't know of streaming down his face. The cultivator only raised his gaze when the sound of dragons could be heard in the distance. They must have gotten attracted here by the malevolence.

Liu Qingge gently put Shen Qingqiu back down. Before placing her fan he had taken with him in her hands. Then the younger of the two stood up.

“I'll be back soon...” Liu Qingge mumbled quietly.

After some walking through the rain, Liu Qingge arrived at the summit where many dragons had gathered and the few cultivators still around fought them. Silver eyes gazed upon the battlefield for a bit, until he gritted his teeth and let his anger flare up within him again. With a shout, the cultivator branded his sword and joined the fray.

The battle was long, but it rained the whole time. Once it was finally over, silence returned to the mountains. Liu Qingge stood in the middle of what was left of the cultivators who had fought alongside him and the destruction the dragons had spread. The cultivator was about to take a step, when his body started to wobble and he fell backwards. Since no one was around to catch him, he landed hard on his back. Hand still gripping his sword. Dying silver eyes stared at the clouds above, where heavy rain was still falling towards him. Washing away as much blood as it could.

“I... need... too...”

Liu Qingge didn't have the strength to finish his sentence and silver eyes slid closed. For him, it was only for a moment. When silver eyes opened again, the sun shone brightly high above him. It blinded silver eyes for a moment and he had to shade them by raising a hand. He slowly sat up and soon sat staring emptily down. Trying to recall what had happened. His memories suddenly flashed by and silver eyes widened.

Liu Qingge was quickly on his feet, sword still in hand as he started to run what he thought was the way back to the burial ground where he had left Shen Qingqiu. But slowly he came to a realization... he didn't recognize anything! He came to a stop and started to look around in desperation. That was when he noticed his hair was no longer black, but silver-white with red tips. Silver eyes quickly looked down at his clothes and saw that they looked like his old ones, but were decorated with red instead of silver.

The sword landed on the ground with a clatter as Liu Qingge placed his hands onto his head. Silver eyes wide with tears gathering in them as fingers curled and took hold of his now silver hair. Small flames flared up around him one after another as he realized what had happened, realized what was going on. The now fire seraph sunk down onto his knees and stared into the ground. But suddenly screamed out his grief towards the ground. The flames shot away from him and it didn't take long before the area around him were on fire.

Liu Qingge's hands fell from his head and laid slack on his lap. Then he sat like that for some time. Not moving a muscle as the fire raged around him. Nearby animals fled the fire in order to survive. But after having sat still like that, his hand gripped the sword on the ground beside him. The fire seraph slowly stood up, determination burning within his gaze. With a sweep, his blade got sheathed and the fire around him went out. Leaving the ground merely glowing where the fire had been. Then he walked away. Determined to find his fiance and keep his promise. His oath.

It was silent among them once Liu Qingge had finished telling them his story.

“So the reason... to why you are in these mountains... where to find this place?...” Alisha asked slowly after some time in silence.

“Yeah... I had hoped she had become a seraph as well...” Liu Qingge mumbled.

It got silent once again. Until Sorey got a determined expression and turned towards Liu Qingge.

“Let us help you find her”

Liu Qingge blinked a few times at the former shepherd in surprised. The rest couldn't help but smile. Used to Sorey's will to help others.

“Then let's explore this place a bit more.” Mikleo added.

“Still too early to give up, after all~” Rose also added.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Alisha giggled softly.

Liu Qingge stood in stunned silence as he watched the younger seraphs spread out and start exploring the area. In a try to figure out what happened after the older had left to fight those dragons.

“Come on! Don't just stand there and stare!” Rose urged on.

Liu Qingge couldn't help but just shake his head. But then gave the window carvings a glance before starting to look around as well.

By the time they seemed to have found something, it was already the middle of the day and they were standing in the far back of the ceremonial ground.

“We have looked everywhere by now and this is the place that looks the most suspicious.” Rose concluded.

They were standing turned towards a plain rock wall. No paths led to it, but no greenery was growing over it like the other high old walls. And right behind this place in the wall were a mountain of the smaller size. Just a few meters taller than the meter tall walls. Okay, if the cathedral in Pendrago were placed beside this wall, it would look small. That would tell the scale of the trees in the forest covering these mountains.

Alisha walked closer to the wall and placed a hand on it. Green eyes closed and the rest of them stayed silent as they waited on the earth seraph to say something. After a bit, she opened her eyes and removed the hand, before turning towards the rest of them.

“There is a path behind this wall that leads deeper into the mountain. But it's sealed and I can't open it.” Alisha explained.

“Then we need to figure out how to undo the seal...” Mikleo mumbled thoughtfully.

“We can't force it open?” Rose asked.

“I get it! Don't look at me like that!!” Rose then quickly said when Sorey, Mikleo and Alisha looked at her.

They stood silent for a bit and thought about what they should do. When Sorey suddenly took a few steps back.

“What is it, Sorey?” Mikleo asked as the other studied the wall from a distance.

“There's something engraved further up on the wall...” Sorey said as he pointed.

The rest of them backed away from the wall and looked up to where Sorey was pointing. The lightning seraph was right. Something was engraved further up on the wall. They hadn't seen it before because the sun had been shining straight on the wall the whole day. But during this time of the day, they could see the shadows the engravings created.

“Are those... symbols?” Alisha asked.

“Characters, one character is one word.” Liu Qingge corrected.

“Can you read it?” Sorey asked.

“It's normal writing to me.” Liu Qingge stated as he drew his blade.

The other four got a bit startled. But when Liu Qingge got the blade to float lying in the air and jumped up on it, they stared in amazement. Then they remembered that when they first saw the fire seraph, he had been flying around on the sword.

Liu Qingge got the sword to take him up to the text engraved into the wall, so that he could take a closer look. The fire seraph was there for some time, before he came back down. The older landed softly on the ground and sheathed his sword.

“So? What does it say?” Rose asked impatiently.

_The blazing sun represents the element of fire_

_The steady mountains represent the element of earth_

_The deep rivers represent the element of water_

_The dancing leaves represent the element of wind_

_The four bound by harmony and understanding_

_Only those who understand their bond may find peace_

_Only then wilt the path to balance be clear_

“What's with people and writing weird poems as instructions?!” Rose complained loudly as she scratched her head with both hands in frustration.

While the other four stayed silent and thought about it. Sorey and Mikleo mirrored each other in their thinking poses. They both seemed to come to a conclusion at the same time and raised their heads together.

“You think that would work?” Mikleo asked, like he had read Sorey's mind.

“It's worth a shot, we don't have much else to go on.” Sorey agreed.

The rest looked at them in confusion. Sorey and Mikleo turned towards the rest.

“Come on, we have an idea!” Sorey exclaimed with a bright smile.

The rest then followed the two over to the pavilion. Sorey and Mikleo then made the other three stand in front of the window carvings. They each soon stood in front of their represented element.

“Should I stand in the middle then?” Sorey asked after the other four stood in position.

“As the former shepherd, I'd say it's our best shot.” Mikleo agreed.

So Sorey walked over to stand in front of middle window carving.

“Um... Sorey... what are we supposed to do now?” Rose asked slowly.

“Let's try with placing a hand against the carvings and pour our elemental energy into it.” Sorey suggested.

They looked among each other, before they shrugged and placed a hand on the window carving they stood in front off. They all closed their eyes and concentrated on gathering energy in the hand against the wall. They stood still like that for a bit, before they all opened their eyes. After looking among themselves they removed their hands from the window carvings.

“I really thought it would work...” Sorey mumbled thoughtfully.

“Maybe we misunderstood something? Qingge, can you sat it again?” Mikleo asked.

But just as Liu Qingge were to say what was written on the wall again, the ground started to shake. It shook so much, that they lost their balance. The fire seraph did manage to stay standing by widening and lowering his stance.

“What's with the delayed reaction?!” Rose complained.

“Let's go and see if anything changed!” Alisha urged.

The group got up on their feet, since the shaking had stopped, and left the pavilion. Like they had hoped, there was now a hole in the wall where there earlier wasn't. Liu Qingge didn't waste a second, he rushed into the darkness of the tunnel without waiting on anything. The rest hurried after. But they quickly realized that they were nowhere near as fast as the fire seraph that had grown up with a very different training from them. Sorey managed to summon his powers and use his lightning to zap himself forward. He was lucky the tunnel was straight. But when the young seraph tried to stop, he tripped and landed face-first onto the floor.

“Sorey!” Mikleo called out from far behind, having seen what had happened.

The rest caught up and gathered around Sorey, who sat up on his knees and rubbed his nose.

“Haven't fully figured out how to stop...” Sorey said with a smile and hand on the back of his head.

Rose and Alisha chuckled, while Mikleo sighed with a hand over his face and a shake of his head. Then they turned towards Liu Qingge, who stood still at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a big round room with light coming in from a crack in the ceiling. The ground was covered with flowers of a pale green crystal that looked to glow in the light from the sun getting in through the crack. In the middle, among the many flowers, laid Shen Qingqiu. Her hair having turned silver-white. Her clothes the same as back then, but not a speck of blood or dirt anywhere. Her hands rested on her stomach over her folding-fan.

“Xiu Ya...” Liu Qingge breathed out without thinking.

Liu Qingge walked over to his beloved and sat down on his knees beside her. The fire seraph had no idea how he knew her true name. He had merely called out in relief from the bottom of his heart. But that was enough. Green eyes slowly blinked open and looked up to meet silver grey.

“Qing...ge?...”

Liu Qingge couldn't stop the smile on his lips from spreading and tears from gathering. The fire seraph slowly helped Shen Qingqiu sit up. Her fingers wrapped around her fan without much thought. The two then sat in silence and just looked at each other for a few moments. So many words exchanged in the silence, yet they did not know enough of them. Tears gathered in green eyes and the female seraph threw her arms around the other's neck.

Liu Qingge didn't hesitate and wrapped his arms tightly around his beloved. Both of them with tears rolling down their cheeks, both of them with smiles on their lips. Neither wanted to ever let the other go. Sorey and his three friends stood to the side and watched the reunion with warm smiles. None of them wanted to speak in fear of ruining the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I forget that LQG is a teacher in canon... He got to prove he could teach in this XD


End file.
